Infantry Defense Systems of the Galaxy
For thousands of year various sapients have devised means of providing themselves with protection during combat, from tanned hides to metal plates to ballistic textiles and ceramics. This trend continues into the 35th century. This is an index of various catagories of personal defense systems. Conventional Body Armor BHEARS The Biochemical Hostile Environment Atomic Radiation Survival suit (BHEARS) is the standard Bragulan battle ready armor. It shields infantry from full spectrum environmental threats and provides protection against modern small arms. The primary components, like the overcoat, are made of thick airtight armorweave, flaktarn and treated Karlack leathers, giving it complete resistance against sub-hypersonic ballistic projectiles and proximity energy discharges. Optional bragcrete or bragsteel plating inserts, and even Karlack carapaces, can drastically improve survivability against long distance hits. A positive pressure air system and inverse-osmosis air filtration respirator provide environmental protection. Atmospheric recyclers allows wearers to operate in vacuum for several hours. The tubules that connect to the respirator are actually hooked to hydration bottles or liquid meat packets, allowing Bragulan soldiers to enjoy one meal a day without having to removing their suits. Catheters are also in place for efficient waste removal and recycling, these are extremely uncomfortable but comfort was never a concern for the BHEARS' designers, survival (and mass production) was. Freonics provide onboard climate control and a measure of thermal camouflage. Typically, conscripts are issued handed down BHEAR suits marked by the unwashed bloodstains of their former wearers and with the bullet holes and plasma burns patched up. Professional soldiers are issued superior suits with features like multi-spectrum optics, thirty kilogram ultralite tactical computronics with CRT wrist and visor displays, and integrated communicators. Special forces can even have chameleonic camouflage and plutonium-powered servohydraulic braces worn externally on their BHEARS. Some armors have built-in medical suites that can deliver combat drugs like coagulants, pain-killers, emotion-suppressants, vitamins, minerals, antacids, and rage-inducing steroids to the wearer as needed. Blacksun Defense Technologies Lorica mk-45 Combat suit The standard BDU of the Commonwealth Military for 200 years, the Lorica series has been updated and upgraded multiple times. The suit includes full NBC kit using a rebreather, an optional mechanical pressure system for combat in low pressure enviroments, water/nutrient soup dispensors, built in communication systems and a sensor suite with combat information HUD. A miniturized cybernetic support system is included, which dispenses drugs, can handle some body fuctions for some time and can lessen the pain response. The armor includes torso protection, pauldrons, armored boots, guantlets and a full head helmet. Several varients exist for diferent purposes, but the standard weight is between 12 and 15 kilograms *Human, Chamarran and Tau varients, to accomidate diferent foot structures, hands, the presence of tails and others systems. *K-Armor: A varient in armor components, using layers of ballistic gel, ceramic plates and high tensile strength textiles. A miniturized inertial dampener is installed underneith the brestplate to grant increased ressiliance, although this system demands large quantities of energy and can only be employed for short periods. This is optimized for use against kinetic energy base attacks and offers superior protection to most comprable armor systems in that regard but lags in terms of defense against directed energy weapons. *E-Armor: E-Armor is built to be better suited against energy attacks, having an ablative outer layer with thick insulitive and conductive layers as well as a heat sink located on the back which ejects after reaching saturation. E-armor has a secondary anti-ballistic component which is effective against shrapnal, but has lackluster protection against KE weapons. *G-Armor: G-Armor is general purpose armor, which has superior proction against slugthrowers than E-armor and better protection against energy weapons than K-armor, but lacks optimization The system can be hooked up to thermoptic camoflauge cloaks for stealth operations. Power Armor BS-300 Variable Threat Response Battlesuit Jointly designed and manufactured by the DeBarros and Maibatsu megacorporations, the BS-300 is the current standard for USMC powered armor. It consists of a proprietary Maibatsu kusari-type strength-enhancing musclesuit worn underneath a DeBarros powered combat battle armor (PCBA). The kusari ''is made of a buckycarbon fibre weave that fits like a second skin. Embedded within the suit is a network of tiny feedback sensors linked to the move-by-wire system controlling the suit's strength-enhanced movement. These sensors also make sure the suit knows how to keep the user comfortable in any condition. Climate controls and man/machine interface are contained in a waistband that combines style and functionality. The user can preset climate control variables or access a full set of options through the TISS. The PCBA itself is fully sealed. It provides oxygen recycling during operations in hard vacuum as well as protection against cosmic radiation, and it offers the user significantly enhanced strength, speed and durability. The BS-300 is proofed against K-bolt fire at 300 meters. The armor is based on tungsten alloy backing lamellar bonded to the power-assist motility system, underneath an auxetic impact-reduction and heat-dissipating layer, wholly covered by interlocking titanium-ceramic plates coated in stealth paint with rudimentary chameleonic properties. Squad communications are facilitated through either a set of electronic speakers or the Tactical Integrated Soldier System (TISS), which includes a helmet HUD, distributed computers, optics and antenna, encrypted radio, electronic support measures, IFF, a SAR emergency beacon and an automatic interface for TISS-optimized weapons systems such as the M11, M116, or M167. The suit also includes sensors to monitor suit status as well as the health of the soldier, and an integrated medfac that manufactures and dispenses a number of antitoxins, sedatives and nanomedical treatments. KODIAAK The Knock Out Direct Intrusion Advanced Auto-Killer armor is an extremely specialized power suit used only by the most elusive of Bragulan special forces - the Emerald Guard's Cybrag Atomic Revengeance Echelon. These are amongst the most sophisticated killing machines ever devised by Bragule, boasting bleeding-edge bragtech befitting their nuclear-powered cyber-Bragulan wearers. The KODIAAK was designed to be comparable to Solarian FORCE and Byzantine Astartes armors, and what bragtech lacked in finesse was made up with raw nuclear power. It can carry a strategic warload with enough micro- and macro-nuclear weaponry to turn an individual Cybrag into an atomic arsenal, and a conventional loadout with everything from power claws that can rip through tanks to heavy K-cannons to the dreaded atomic death rays. Such is the extent of its armamentation. The secretive nature of the Emerald Guard, and the highly advanced tech in the KODIAAK armors, means that what little has been seen of them usually involved gratuitous use of atomics and the paths of destruction they leave behind. The limited encounters with KODIAAK Cybrags has led CEID and the Inquisition to believe that the armor is still in an advanced prototype stage, being field tested and continuously developed and improved by its designers. Type-2 PAIS The Type-2 PAIS (Power-Assisted Infantry Suite) is the standard battle armor of the Humanist Union's Federal Army. Modular in design, the Type-2 can be broken down to various degrees depending on mission and supply constraints, as well as unit needs. The full Type-2 provides full RBC protection, power-assisted movement, integrated targeting, integrated medical systems, and protection against infantry-scale fire, among other utilities such as a shiftable camouflage pattern. While the Type-2 can easily compensate for the kick of a typical infantry weapon, larger-scale weapons - such as full-scale Bragulan firearms - are still unwieldly, if managable. The Humanist Union does produce an export model of the Type-2, the Type-2b, which is broadly similar if technically inferior. Type-3 PAIS(h) The Type-3 PAIS(h) is heavy-duty infantry battle suit designed for use by the Humanist Union's Special Operations department of the army. With far more robust power assistance and movement enhancement than the Type-2, it pushes the transhuman capabilities of SO soldiers even further. Heavier and bulkier than the Type-2, the Type-3's modularity is somewhat inferior to the Type-2; many of the systems that make the suit superior are integral. Type-3 users are capable of handling any infantry-scale weapon with relative ease, as well as absorbing impressive levels of firepower. The Type-3's medical suite is extremely well-regarded, and has a reputation for saving people from seemingly-impossible injuries long enough for proper medical treatment to be applied. It also features an active camouflage system that shifts patterns on the fly, rendering it less visible. Type-5 APAIS Also known as a "breacher suit," the Type-5 stands somewhere on the blurred line between powered armor and a vehicle. Armored against even light anti-vehicular weapons, Type-5s are usually deployed to break enemy hardpoints, to storm buildings, and to storm starships (especially at entry points). Typical armament consists of a right-arm-mounted automatic mass driver, an LMG mounted in the left arm alongside a grenade launcher, and a shoulder-mounted flechette gun for eliminating lightly armored infantry. Type-5s are bipedal, with a retractable, rear-mounted third leg to stabilize the suit when it loses its balance or is engaging in high-agility maneuvers. Type-5s have humanoid arms mounted on the torso trunk that are typically kept retracted to avoid damage; these are intended for use as manipulators, but can hold and use light infantry weaponry. Type-5 suits are extremely cramped; the pilot is in a near-fetal position and manipulates the suit through a direct brainjack. Despite their firepower and impressive armor, Type-5 attrition rates are quite high, owing to their extremely dangerous role. As a result, Type-5 pilots have a reputation for being unpredictable and fearless. Personal Shields Glitterward 'Glitterward' is the name of a series of personal force shield devices developed by Pan-Empyrean Positronics. Extreme miniaturization of hyperfield and energy storage technology allows Glitterward projectors to stop or deflect several salvos of 10mm plasma darts, a remarkable feat for a device that can be worn as an ornamental bracelet. That same bleeding edge technology however renders Glitterward devices extremely expensive, and thus a barely-seen rarity in Known Space. After all, those most likely to be shot at - soldiers, mercenaries, privateers, etc. - are exceedingly unlikely to be able to afford the device, and those who can - the absurdly affluent - are usually unlikely to be shot at. Glitterward devices then are mostly worn by the paranoid rich, or by specialists such as undercover operatives of CEID or the Imperial Inquisition. Other Dixon Cybernetics CX45 Bobcat Infantry Combat Form The most common infantry combat form employed by the Nova Atlantean Commonwealth, the Bobcat is not too dissimilar to a civilian prosthetic body and has roughly the same dimentions as a roughly average human. That said, its preformance are higher, having roughly 8 times the strength of a human, the ability to run up to 45 km/h and a layer of armor that offers protection against shrapnal and small arms that are comprable to most light power armor systems, and is augmented by conventional BDUs for reasons of conceiling officer's positions. Both male and female varients have been devised as this is generally shown to improve morale and allow for easier interactions in case of occupation. Bobcats are cheap to build and mantain and is used posthuman officers assigned to work with Regular Soldiers, soldiers stationed on bases, Police, specialized missions, UCW forces and non combat posthumans in the field. Maibatsu Type-2 Combat Frame Maibatsu developed the Type-2 in response to the fiasco that was the Type-1 frame which, incorporating significant organic components, proved highly unreliable and prone to having ambitions of their own, leading to the mass desertion of all remaining Type-1 models in the so-called 'night of the cyberninjas'. The Type-2 on the other hand is an all-mechanical model utilized by the Megacorp for corporate security. It features a titanium alloy endoskeleton with a powerful servo system that can lift objects almost five times its own weight or punch through concrete and metal. The Type-2 has two modes of operation: direct, and autonomous: it can either be remote-controlled by Maibatsu defense computers, or units can be relinquished to their own control and act independently for months on end. Maibatsu has designed the Type-2 frame explicitly to be intimidating, which is why the corp settled for the robotic look (persistent rumors on the Datasphere speculate that the corporation stole the design from the Collectors). Whatever the truth behind these rumors, recently several Type-2 frames were found to be in possession of the rogue Collector 'Legion'. Skiravic Disposable Attack Drone The Skiravic was developed in the year 3388 by Gorlavez Duva-Mynsk, inventor and founder of the Patriotic Toy Makers for the Children of the Empire after the ''Bragstavka declared the need for a cheap and disposable weapon to combat insurgents in the Empire’s outer territories. The idea for the Skiravic came from another product of the Patriotic Toy Makers, a robotic spider-like toy-pet Karlack. The toy-pet was very popular with children, and was extremely easy to retrofit and mass produce as a disposable weapon for the Imperial Military. The Skiravic is two times larger than a human hand and sports four extremely dexterous legs making it remarkably agile, able to leap several meters into the air. It is powered by a tiny plutonium battery and controlled by a robust CPU with rudimentary insect swarm programming. The Skiravic houses a number of sensors, ranging from motion detectors to multi-spectral lenses and a chemical 'scenting' apparatus. It has only one weapon, a telescopic monolecular-tipped spike that injects concentrated K-residue. With its powerful legs, a Skiravic can launch itself upwards to its target, latch on and then use its spike to inject the target’s chest cavity full of acid. A number of Skiravic variants have been developed. The Skiravic II is 10% larger than the original, with the acid spike replaced by a hypodermic drill designed to punch through power suits and other forms of infantry armor. The improved Skiravic III is programmed to sabotage vehicles and set off explosive materials with its hypodermic acid-drill. The Skiravic IV variant is capable of being dispensed in zero-gravity, to assist in boarding spaceships and stations, or denying areas from the enemy. The Skiravic V is an extremely miniaturized surveillance drone used by Bragulan Special Operations Command (BRAGSOC). Category:Ground Forces